Fighter Pilot Shows Mercy

An impression of the encounter between Brown’s B-17 and Stigler’s Messerschmitt by aviation artist John D. Shaw

August 21, 1915 — Out of the horrors of war sometimes emerge exploits of courage, daring and skill that merit admiration even if they are steeped in blood and death. The German aristocrat and fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, for example, won widespread fame in the First World War for shooting down 80 American and British aircraft in a 19-month period. With his plane painted a distinctive blood red he became known – and feared – as the Red Baron.

By contrast, German fighter pilot Oberleutnant Ludwig Franz Stigler, who was born on this day, is remembered not for the number of Allied aircraft that he shot down in the Second World War but for the one – an American B-17 bomber – that he didn’t.

On December 20, 1943, 2nd Lieutenant Charles “Charlie” Brown was on his first mission with the 379th Bombardment Group to attack the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory in the German city of Bremen.

Brown’s B-17F bomber, flying under the unlikely name of Ye Olde Pub, was twice hit by flak as it approached the target. He had to shut down one of the engines. The badly damaged aircraft then lagged behind the 20 other bombers in the American formation and Ye Olde Pub was repeatedly attacked by German fighters.

In no time it had lost its nose cone, the tail section was almost destroyed and there were gaping holes in the fuselage. Only one of its eleven guns was working.

If 21-year-old Brown’s aircraft was in a sorry state, so were those on board. Brown himself had been shot in the shoulder and at one point lost consciousness because of pain and loss of blood. The tail gunner was dead and other members of the 10-strong crew were badly wounded.

When Brown looked outside his cockpit he was horrified to see a German Messerschmitt hovering about a metre off his wingtip and obviously about to close in for the kill. “He’s going to destroy us,” Brown said to his co-pilot.

Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG 27) was a fighter wing of the Luftwaffe. One of its crack pilots was 28-year-old Franz Stigler who by this day had 27 “kills” to his name flying his deadly Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6. With one more kill, he would receive the Knight’s Cross, Germany’s highest honour for bravery. And he was in the thick of the fighting against the American B-17s.

Just after Stigler landed to refuel, the crippled Ye Olde Pub limped through the air close by and the German immediately decided to quickly take off and shoot it down. But when he flew close to the enemy aircraft he could see the dead and wounded members of the American crew through holes in the fuselage. Stigler was to say later he could not understand how such a severely damaged plane could still be flying.

He also said that Gustav Rödel, one of his commanding officers, had told his pilots: "If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you myself.” Stigler decided that, like a parachutist, the crew of this B-17 were in no condition to offer resistance, let alone launch an attack. "To me, it was just like they were in a parachute. I couldn't shoot them down.”

Stigler nodded at the American pilot then began flying in formation with the B-17 so that German anti-aircraft gunners below would not shoot down the slow-moving bomber. He escorted Brown away from danger out to the North Sea. Then he took one last look at the American, saluted, peeled his fighter away and returned to Germany.

Brown somehow managed to nurse his crippled aircraft the 250 miles back to his base in England.

Had Stigler’s superiors known of his actions he would almost certainly have been court-martialled and probably shot. But the story did not emerge for nearly 50 years.

By that time Brown was living in Miami, Florida, and had made repeated attempts to identify and locate the unknown German. His efforts included placing an ad in a newsletter for former Luftwaffe pilots, telling the story and asking if anyone knew the identity of his saviour.

Then in January 1990 he received a letter. It was from Stigler. The German pilot had moved to Vancouver, Canada, in 1953 and become a successful businessman.

The two met and along with their families they became firm friends for the rest of their lives. The two men died within months of each other in 2008. Stigler was 93, and Brown was 86.

The whole story is told in detail in the book ‘A Higher Call’ by American military historian Adam Makos, published in 2012.

Published: January 11, 2023
Updated: August 21, 2023